ESPN arrives at fresh positioning for Champions League T20

Given the hoopla over the Indian Premier League, ESPN is seeking to give the Champions League T20 a fresh positioning. Saffron Brand Consultants has been tasked with refreshing the positioning for the T20 tournament. A detailed study has been carried out in major cities to help understand Champions League T20 better and arrive at a new positioning. A qualitative study was conducted in four markets – Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore and Jaipur. Following this was a quantitative study in seven markets – Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Kolkata, Ahmedabad, Jaipur and Pune.

Elaborating on the exercise, Avik Chattopadhyay of Saffron Brand Consultants, said, “Today, a world sporting TV programme is competing for attention not just from other sports events, but all other genres of entertainment on television as well as other forms of leisure and entertainment, be it reading a book or going on a holiday. In such a scenario, where there is so much to do, one has to look for a compelling reason that will ensure the right number of eyeballs for people to come to a cricketing event on television.”

That’s when research came into the picture where respondent profiles for research were those who watched IPL and were truly cricket crazy. Apart from consumer research, the exercise also involved viewer analysis of the cricket consuming audience with TAM. This exercise helped in understanding patterns of viewership and clusters of different types of cricket audience and their contribution to viewership and ratings.

Chattopadhyay added, “When ESPN partnered with us, we got into the task of looking at the core brand idea for Champions League T20 and the idea which would help in connecting with the target audience. If I were to define the current positioning in one word, it would be ‘distilled’. Simply meaning, there is such an arduous process to qualify to play this game that one really must be worth it to be a part of this, hence it is sports in its purest form.”

The format itself is unique and the task for Saffron that emerged after the research was to create more buzz around the event and greater association with Champions League T20. The objective is to communicate that the event remains the highest honour that the game has to offer. This is when McCann Erickson was roped in to translate the new positioning into compelling creatives.